Transnational Lives: Expatriates in Indonesia

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Privileged
migrants, such as expatriates living abroad, are typically associated
with lives of luxury in exotic locations. This fascinating and in-depth
study reveals a more complex reality. By focusing on corporate expatriates
the author provides one of the first book length studies on "transnationalism
from above".

The book draws on the author's extended research among the expatriate
community in Jakarta, Indonesia. The findings, which relate to expatriate
communities worldwide, provide a nuanced analysis of current trends amonth
a globally mobile workforce.

While acknowledging the potentially empowering impact of transnationalism,
the author challenges current paradigms by arguing that the study of elite
migration shows that transnational lives do not always entail fluid identities
but the maintenance of boundaries - of body, race and gender.

The rich ethnographic data adds a critical dimension to studies of migration
and transnationalism, filling a distinct gap in terms of theory and ethnography.
Written in an engaging and accessible style, the book will be of interest
to academics and students, particularly in anthropology, migration studies
and human geography.

This beautifully evocative text, based on rich ethnographic material,
relocates the privileged, white, migrant within the mainstream of global
migration studies. With an emphasis on their embodied and gendered experiences
of everyday life, it makes an important, sensitive and timely contribution
to contemporary debates around the intersection of the global and the
local, mobility and boundaries, and the stratification of migration. Karen O'Reilly, University of Loughborogh, UK